


Jamie Tiera Kirk and the Tarsus IV incident

by MsLoving



Series: The adventures of Jamie Tiera Kirk [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dubious Consent, Female James T. Kirk, I'm Bad At Tagging, Tarsus IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2014-12-11
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:38:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2753120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsLoving/pseuds/MsLoving
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After accidentally killing her uncle Frank Davis Jamie Tiera Kirk and her brother George are sent to their only remaining relatives, an aunt and an uncle on Tarsus IV. Of course any version of James T. Kirk does not go well with that certain planet, even a female one.<br/>Jamie finds herself rather quickly in a struggle for her life.</p><p> </p><p>-inspired by "Saving the Earth" by Daleklover10</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jamie Tiera Kirk and the Tarsus IV incident

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Saving the Earth](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2180598) by [Daleklover10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daleklover10/pseuds/Daleklover10). 



> I have been intending to write a Tarsus IV fic for ages, but I have always been missing something. I finally found inspiration when I was reading Daleklover10's story Saving the Earth  
> I'll reveal the idea I borrowed from Daleklover10 at the end of the chapter since I don't want to spoil the surprise.
> 
> I don't know if parts of this will be upsetting to some, but I tried to be as vague as possible without leaving out anything important. Still, fair warning, there is violence and underage sex with very dubious consent. You have been wanred.
> 
> I do not own Star Trek or its characters.

**_Excerpt from the File of Citizen 0022330475# Jamie Tiera Kirk_ **

_[…]Jamie and her brother George Samuel Kirk Jr. were found in the house of their uncle Frank Davis in Riverside Iowa. Frank Davis’ body was found in the kitchen apparently beaten to death with a blunt instrument. Further investigation proved that the murder weapon was a saucepan. The children were scared and reluctant to comply with the officers on the scene. They refused to talk and communicated for several days only with nods, head shakes and shrugs. Extensive conversations, most of which were of a monologic nature due to the children’s continued refusal to speak, finally gave an insight into the events of the 5 th November 2245. It transpired that Frank Davis returned home drunk to find Jamie T. Kirk and George S. Kirk eating in the kitchen. After an argument, the cause of which has not yet been possible to ascertain, Frank became so enraged that he resorted to acts of violence. The children, worried for their health and lives seeing as this has been a common occurrence, decided to defend themselves with any means possible. In the following struggle Jamie got hold of a saucepan, which she used to incapacitate her uncle. The blow she dealt proved fatal and left the children shaken and traumatized. Officers arrived at the scene barely five minutes later after they were alerted to the sounds of a struggle by neighbors. Jamie and her brother were sent to their aunt and uncle on Tarsus IV since their mother was unavailable, being on a mission in deep space at the time. She has nonetheless been informed of her brother’s death and has approved of the children’s new caretakers. Continued visits to a child psychologist have been strongly advised. […]_

 

 

 

Tarsus IV; Stardate 2246.43

 

Jamie was sitting on the couch in the living area of the small house of her aunt and uncle on Tarsus IV. She was reading one of the science books her uncle had lying around. She could hear her brother in the adjacent room listening to music. Her aunt Christy and her uncle Jeff were engaged in a hushed argument in the kitchen. She could hear the anger in Jeff’s voice, it wasn’t something new but when she picked up on the fear coming from Christy she looked up.

Things hadn’t been too well on the colony on Tarsus IV. Shortly after Jamie’s and George’s arrival weird rumors had started. People said that the plants in the forests had a weird frost-like growth on their leaves. Soon reports of the same growth on crops had started to circle followed by a decrease in wildlife. Governor Kodos had announced that the colonists would receive less food than usual to preserve as much of the reserves as possible. He had assured the people that he had sent a request for help to Starfleet, but until they arrived everybody would have to ration food supplies. That had been two weeks ago. Two days ago rumors had started that the grain silos had fallen prey to the strange frost-like growth which had by then been identified as an exotic fungus, but since nobody knew how to stop it from killing the plants nothing could be done until a science team from Starfleet examined the malefactor.

Jamie knew how to deal with little food, Frank hadn’t been the best guardian and she and George had often gone hungry when they still lived with him. What worried her were Aunt Christy and Uncle Jeff. They had been secretive and scared ever since they heard the rumors about the grain silos two days ago. She picked up easily on their fear and it kept her feeling tense. Clearly they were waiting for something bad to happen and even though Jamie was only 13 she was by no means stupid. She knew that if the rumors were true the entire colony on Tarsus IV was in danger of perishing. She had been tracking the news to hear as soon as possible about any new announcements Kodos might make. So far there had been none.

Aunt Christy left the kitchen with tired eyes and an expression that scared Jamie greatly. It was worried but so much more. Her eyes were sunken in and she looked tired, her brow was furrowed and her mouth quivered ominously. Jamie closed her book but before she could say anything Aunt Christy left the room again and went into Jamie’s and George’s room. Jamie could hear the music stop and then George’s voice. He asked something but Jamie couldn’t hear what. Uncle Jeff stood in the doorway and he didn’t look much better. That came as no surprise to the girl, none of them had been sleeping very well after the announcement and the constant worry about food affected the adults more than the children. Jeff didn’t say anything but Jamie could see it in his eyes: They had come to a decision. They would be prepared for the worst.

Christy continued moving between rooms but Jamie didn’t bother asking why. The woman would reveal her plans and intentions when she deemed the moment right and not before. At dinner that day the right moment seemed to have come.

“Jamie, George, you’ve probably already realized that your uncle and I have been worried by the situation. We heard from some folks that Kodos will most likely make another announcement tomorrow early in the morning and we don’t want to be caught unprepared. From the examples of other colonies that have had food shortages in the past we have collected as much data as possible and we fear that Kodos might either decide to reduce food rations even more or start to reduce the population. The latter case is currently more worrisome because we fear that he might have decided to make his announcement so early in the morning so many of us will still be asleep or unprepared and therefore easy prey. We have decided that we will sleep early today and tomorrow morning we will barricade the doors and windows and wait for the announcement. If he indeed decides to decrease our numbers we will run and hide. I have already packed all of our remaining food and I have started packing clothes and other essentials.” Here she stopped to look at the children. They had been listening with increasing alarm but had stayed silent.

“I want you to continue packing, I have prepared a rucksack each, try to fill them with things you will need, no stuffed toys or the like. I have already put in some food and first aid stuff like bandages. Pack warm clothes, hardwearing ones. Try to think of small things, like your Swiss army knife, George, or lighters. We might have to survive for quite some time in the wild.” When Jamie and George started trembling with fright, Christy’s expression softened somewhat.

“It sounds bad now, but we want to be prepared for the worst. It might not come to that at all. However, your mom left you in our care and we want to make sure you get through this alive. When you’re done packing come find me and we will go over everything again just to be sure. Then you go off to sleep.”

Jamie and George packed their rucksacks in silence. Jamie had been reading up on survival in the wild before but now that it counted she couldn’t remember much of it. It had seemed like a fun thing to try, living outside without help from civilization. Now that it was about to come true it made her afraid. Her throat felt oddly full and she had to wipe away stray tears more than once.

When they were done they headed to the kitchen were Christy and Jeff were already waiting. Christy checked their backpacks and approved of their contents. Before they went to sleep she hugged them both and whispered into their ears. “Everything will be alright, you’ll see.” Even Uncle Jeff gave them both a quick hug, he usually just tousled George’s hair and brushed Jamie’s cheek, but that day he was worried and it frightened the children even more even if neither said so. They knew that for all the reassurances their aunt and uncle didn’t believe in their words themselves.

 

It was before daybreak when Jamie and George were woken by Jeff. They dressed quickly and helped push the couch in front of the entrance door. They locked the back door and nailed it shut along with all the windows but one. It led out into the garden and was next to a big bush effectively hiding anybody entering or leaving through it from sight. They moved to the back room and sat next to the window. They had left it open to hear anyone approaching. Christy had her PADD on her legs and watched different channels for any news. Jamie and George held onto one another.

When the sun finally crept over the horizon the PADD chimed announcing the beginning of Governor Kodos’ speech.

“People of Tarsus IV, we find ourselves in a dire situation. Food supplies are quickly dwindling and Starfleet has not yet been able to send help. I assure you however that it seems far worse than it truly is. I have found the solution to our problem. We cannot sustain the entire population of 8,000 men and women. I have therefore decided to safe those most worthy of surviving in a great revolution. I have chosen 4,000 people who are superior to the rest, who will have access to food. They will continue our efforts on the planet. The other 4,000 are regrettably a danger to the survival of the chosen ones and will therefore have to be removed. Guards will come to your house to collect you should you be among the 4,000 that are expendable. Do not resist, any attempts to flee or any hostilities will be punished with immediate death. The revolution…”

A hammering on the front door brought the attention of the four people huddled together back to their surroundings.  
“We are here on orders of Governor Kodos. Open the door.” Jeff and Christy looked at each other and then sprang into action. Christy grabbed Jamie and heaved her through the window, next was George helped by Jeff and then the adults followed. After checking left and right they hurried along a row of bushes into the next garden. They were heading for the forest. When they had nearly reached it there were shouts behind them and they heard gunfire. A yelp from Christy had the other three turning to her but since her steps didn’t falter, neither did theirs. They didn’t stop upon entering the tree cover, they kept on running until they put a good distance between themselves and the settlement. The moment they stopped Christy sat down with an audible thump. She held her right arm in her left slightly away from her body. Jeff was immediately at her side. Blood was slowly running down her arm and her hip.

“One of the bastards got me. I think he aimed for my leg but he must have been a bad shot.” She winced. Jeff put down his backpack and rummaged through it pulling out a bottle of universal disinfectant and two bandages. After treating his wife he assessed the surroundings.

“We can’t stay here. They’re going to find us if we stay in the open. We need to find cover, if possible close to a settlement. We have to keep an eye out. Maybe we can get some food if we are stealthy enough.” George and Jamie got up without protest. They were scared and didn’t dare speak. Jamie was shaking and George was barely any better. He was trying to hide his shiver by balling his hands into fists and biting his bottom lip.

 

It took them some time to find a suitable spot. They stopped for a short snack when the sun was high in the sky and it was getting a bit too warm to travel easily with their loads. In the early afternoon it became evident that Christy’s injury was taking more out of her than it had seemed at first, she was slowing them down. She tired quickly and needed more breaks than the others. When it was getting late and they had to strain their eyes to see in the growing darkness they finally found a place to stay. They had been wondering along the edges of the forest always looking for life and had come across a small cavern-like hole in a smallish hill that was so overgrown with vines and large fern-like plants that they had almost missed it in the fading light. Jamie had spotted it with her keen blue eyes and only because she was leaning against the dark earth next to the entrance. Jeff had let out a quiet sigh. He had been worried they might have to stay outside for the night. It would have been bad enough with all of them well but with Christy injured their chances of survival would have dropped to almost zero.

 

The following three days were horrible. In the settlement, close to which they were hiding, Kodos’ guards were rounding up more and more people and dragging them of to God knows where. Houses were being burnt, gunfire sounded in the air and the smell of smoke and death permeated throughout the outskirts of the village. They didn’t dare leave the forest to try and steal some food even though they were slowly burning through their supplies. More than once they had to sit silently huddled together at the very back of their cave because guards had come by searching for fugitives.

On the fourth day Jeff decided to try his luck in the settlement. He told the other three to wait in the cave. It had been a silent morning as far as guard activity went and since they had almost no edible food left there was little choice. The remaining three waited for hours for his return. When it approached midday Christy became restless. Jamie was sobbing quietly at the back of the cave and George was white and tense. About an hour later Christy got up.

“I’ll go look for Jeff. If they got him we need to know. Maybe I can get him out. We need food one way or another so sitting around won’t help.” Jamie and George exchanged worried glances.

“We’re coming with you.” George looked determined and Jamie got up and grimly nodded her ascent. Christy looked as if she wanted to put up a fight at first, but she gave in quickly. “Stay close and stay out of trouble.” were her only words and then they left. They snuck around the outskirts of the village-like settlement and tried to see any signs of Jeff. When they couldn’t find him they moved further in. It was eerily quiet. Since the wildlife had rapidly diminished the occasional bird call had stopped and now that many of the houses were empty even the human noises were almost completely gone. The remaining inhabitants were quiet and mostly hiding in their houses. The only sounds were the crackling of the fires that had burnt down the homes of many of the ‘expendables’ and the light breeze that blew through the fungus-infested trees. They had to hide once when a guard patrol passed them on a street. Christy looked in some of the empty houses to see if Jeff was in one of them and had just been detained by passing patrols. Jamie was feeling increasingly worried that they might get caught, a bad feeling had settled itself in her stomach. It proved to be right when Christy looked through another window just to be spotted by a guard inside the house. Immediately he raised the alarm. Shouts were coming from the main street and Jamie instinctively grabbed George’s hand and pulled him along. She didn’t need Christy’s shouted “Run!” to know what to do. Hiding was their only way to get away now. Running back the way they came she wove through the rows of houses ducking behind bushes only waiting long enough to see whether the next gap between two premises was guard free. She finally dove behind an overturned barrel and a berry bush pulling George along. It was then that she realized that Christy hadn’t been able to keep up. The injury must have gotten worse in the past few days because she was only turning the corner of a house just then. She was too slow. A guard spotted her, aimed his phaser at her and called “Freeze!” When she didn’t comply he fired at her. Christy went down with a cry. At first Jamie thought she was dead but then she saw the almost imperceptible rise and fall of her chest. Two more guards joined the first one as he approached. Jamie held her breath.

“Is she on the list?” the first one asked while pulling her hair back to see it better. One of the other two pulled out a PADD, scanned Christy’s face and waited for a result. While the PADD worked the first guard relieved Christy of her backpack and checked for weapons. After what seemed like an eternity to Jamie the second guard finally declared “She is a bolter. Came from two villages over. Let’s get her to the main town with the others. Hopefully this’ll be the last of ‘em.” The first one laughed. “Do you honestly think that there are no more? We have nowhere near 4,000 and it’s already getting quiet. The clever ones will be much harder to catch. Just be happy if Kodos doesn’t decide that the missing expendables to be executed will be filled in by ones from the chosen lot. You might actually still end up dead at the end of the day.” The second man grunted something in response and then they hauled Christy along. Jamie waited a few more seconds before she climbed out from behind her cover.

“They didn’t see us, did they?” George whispered worriedly.

“I don’t think so. They wouldn’t have given up their search if they had. Let’s follow them. Maybe they’ve got Jeff as well. We need to know if he’s still out there.” Jamie whispered back and together they crept through the shadows after the guards.

Jamie nearly screamed when a hand came to rest on her shoulder but she bit down the urge and just spun around. There was Jeff, holding a finger to his mouth, telling them to be quiet. He looked reproachful but when Jamie pointed to the guards dragging Christy off his face darkened in anger and he nodded. He waved at them to follow and the children did so without question.

 

The guards dragged Christy through half of the village until they reached a vehicle that looked a lot like an old cattle truck from Earth. Jamie felt sick to see them throw Christy in there, especially when she caught a glimpse of more people behind those metal bars surrounding the cargo area. Two of the guards climbed into the truck while the third stayed behind watching the empty streets of the village. Jeff pulled the two children along. He directed them towards the last house of the village where they would be slightly behind and out of sight of the guard standing watch. They hurried because they could already hear the engine starting. When the truck slowly moved forward they dashed out from behind the cover and jumped to catch onto the truck. Jamie’s hands hurt because the metal was cutting into her fingers but she held on. People on the truck made startled sounds but when Jeff made shushing noises they fell silent again, just standing close by and giving silent support. It didn’t take too long until they reached the main town, but for Jamie even the short trip was agonizing and horrible. Christy woke up minutes before the truck pulled into the town and spent the rest of the ride crying when she realized why the other three of her four-person family were hanging on for dear life. Just past the city gates Jeff ordered the children to jump off and together they made their way through the unfamiliar streets towards the city center, where he thought the execution would take place. There were more guards in the streets here, but there were also more streets and more hiding places. Their progress was slow, partly because they didn’t know where exactly the city center was and partly because they walked slowly to avoid detection. When they finally arrived at the square in the town center they saw a huge group of people huddled together, held at bay by guns and phasers. There were people of all ages, an old man was shielding a little girl from view, a man and a woman presumably in their early thirties were holding onto each other. A mother was calming her crying baby. The scene turned Jamie’s stomach. These were people, people who had come here to start a new life, to experience a great adventure on a new planet, people just like the 4,000 chosen that Kodos seemed to think of as superior. How could he sentence these people to death in good conscience? What kind of monster played god like this?

And then he came. He left the large building slightly to the left of where Jeff and the children were hiding. He strode across the street and ascended a sage. He had several guards with him and Jamie silently cursed the man. She searched the crowd trying to find her aunt, but she had not yet been able to spot her. Beside her George and Jeff did much the same. Jeff indicated that he would move around the square trying to find Christy and maybe rescue her. He took off his backpack and left it with the children. Jamie nodded and returned to watching the large crowd. After a short while she decided to do the same and dragged George along to the left of their position. Her next hiding place was much closer to the stage and she got a good look at the man responsible for this before returning to scanning the mass of people.

“People of Tarsus IV, the revolution is successful.” The Governor began his speech then. “But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV.” He held up a piece of paper, surely it was his order to execute these innocent people. He continued speaking but Jamie didn’t hear him, for she had just spotted a group of people a few rows of houses to her left. They seemed to be waiting for something and they were definitely not guards. They pointed to other houses and when Jamie strained her eyes she could see more people hiding barely out of sight. They were all tense and watched the crowd, gesticulating wildly. Then it happened. A small scuffle broke out on one side and guards were looking over and the people in the shadows were using this to their advantage coming out from behind the houses and trying to overcome the inattentive guards. People were rushing in from all sides, jumping the guards or hitting them with makeshift weapons. Jamie caught sight of her uncle and so did George. He wanted to join his uncle, try to help, but Jamie knew in that moment that the attempt to save their loved ones was futile. A cold dread settled in the pit of her stomach and she grabbed onto George, circling him with her arms and trying her hardest to hold him back. “Please, George, it’s no use, they’re all going to die.” And, as if to prove her right, the guards regained control when she ended. Guns and phasers were pointed and the ambushers were repelled. This time though the phasers weren’t on stun. With unblinking eyes Jamie saw it all, saw the attackers fall, bleeding from open wounds, screaming their pain and their disappointment, their grief and their anger in one last scream before they fell silent for good. Some people from the crowd tried to run and some off the attackers turned tail, but none of them got far, the guards got them all. Jeff was one of those who got farthest but he too did not last. When the phaser hit him in the chest Jamie bit down on her tongue to stop the cry that was desperately trying to break free and she clapped her hands to George’s mouth to make sure that their position would not be revealed. George had long stopped struggling and was leaning heavily against his sister.

 

When the commotion finally ended Kodos regained everyone’s attention and Jamie stared at him with eyes filled with fury and loathing. With a burning hatred in her heart she looked at the monster that had allowed this, even ordered it. His little speech was already over and he signaled the guards to start the execution. Screams and crying filled the air, the stench of burning flesh crept into Jamie’s nose and all the while she stared unblinking, determined to burn the faces of every last victim of this massacre into her memory. It was barbaric. The guards did not listen to the pleas, they murdered every last ‘expendable person’ on the square, even the children and babies. George was silently sobbing next to Jamie, stifling his sounds with a fist in his mouth. Jamie was crying freely but she made no sound. The tears ran down her cheeks but there was no sadness in her face. The expression on her face was angry and hard, in her eyes a storm was raging and her mouth was a thin line. She stood there out of sight and yet seeing everything. It was then that she promised herself to live, to live and prove the man wrong, the man – no, the monster – that had ordered this massacre, this bloodbath, the monster that had taken her aunt and uncle, the monster that had murdered with no remorse. She would live and she would do everything in her power to help as many ‘expendable people’ as she could. She would help them survive and when they came out alive she would have proven that they had every right to live. For a moment she told herself she would avenge these people, the ones she could no longer save, but she didn’t delude herself for long. The monster had many guards and any attempt on his life would end in failure.

 

When they execution was over the guards dragged the bodies away. Jamie did not see where they were taking them, but she decided against trying to find out for now. She pulled George up on his feet, took Jeff’s backpack and silently moved away from the square. It didn’t take her long to find a suitable hiding place, though there was probably a lot of luck at play. It was a burned out house with a cellar. The cellar was mostly empty and had two exits, the main one from the floor above and a small tunnel at the back that might have once been part of a ventilation system. Jamie put the backpacks down by the tunnel and started shielding that part of the cellar from view. She dragged a burnt cabinet over and piled a shelf on top of it. She made it look very random, as if the former inhabitants had turned them over in their haste to flee. Then she rolled out the bedroll Christy had put in her rucksack. George said nothing but followed her silent clues.

 

The next day the siblings went scavenging. Most of the empty houses seemed to have already been searched for food, but at noon they had gotten enough to last the day and Jamie had even managed to break open a medicine cabinet and had taken everything in there along. She had also gotten herself a folding knife. They were hiding in the attic of a small inhabited house. The window in the top floor had been thrown in and they had climbed through it to find a dark room stuffed with clutter. That was when they met Clea and Theo. They had lost their parents in the execution as well, but Theo and his sister hadn’t been there to see it, they had been hiding out in that attic for days. Their parents had told them to run when the guards had knocked on their door and Theo had taken Clea and not looked back. Jamie and George split their lunch with them and took them back to the cellar when the sun was sinking behind the tops of the larger buildings. The shadows gave them extra cover and they made it back unseen. Theo and Clea shared the bedroll that had formerly belonged to Jeff since Christy’s baggage had been taken by the guards.

 

Jamie and George went out again the next day but told Theo and Clea to stay behind. Theo was just 9 years old and Clea only 5, they would be more of a hindrance than help and it gave them the chance to leave their luggage behind and move around without being weighed down. The only took two small waist bags with a bit of food and water, a first aid kit and their knives. Jamie told the two new children to leave through the secret tunnel should someone come and if possible take the backpacks along. To be safe she had stored most the medicine and the most long-lasting food in a bulge in the tunnel.

That day they went in a different direction to the one from the day before. They had to make a detour when they came across a heavily guarded park. They searched the houses in the vicinity but returned to a hiding spot across the street from the park to find out why there were so many guards. A movement in a burnt out building adjacent to the park caught Jamie’s attention and she signaled her brother to follow her. Inside the building it was absolutely silent, it seemed at first as if Jamie had been mistaken until a soft voice called. “Psst, over here!” A small hand waved to them from behind a slowly crumpling crate. Jamie looked at George but since the owner of the voice hadn’t just attacked them or dragged them off they agreed with a nod that they would take the chance.

A caramel skinned boy with ruffled hair knelt next to a smallish opening in the wall. He seemed to be no older than 15. “You two nearly gave me a heart attack. I wasn’t expecting anyone to come in here and then you just pop up and so silently. I thought we were busted first but you don’t look like guards to me. In fact you look more like you’re on the run, too.” He said in a somewhat cheery voice that made Jamie frown. She could find nothing positive in this situation. “Well, come along you two. Let me introduce you to the others.” Without any further explanation he slipped through the hole in the wall and out of sight. Jamie hesitated only for a moment and then followed. They were in a dark cupboard-like room. It was hard to see anything and it would have most likely been impossible if it weren’t for the beam of light that came in through the hole they had just climbed through. The boy pushed aside a wooden board and revealed a hole in the floor, even smaller than the first one. He squeezed through and left Jamie and George to follow in their own time. When they were down the boy closed the hole again. They were in a cellar much larger than the one they were hiding in. Before she looked around though, Jamie saw a group of children huddled together around a dim light. They looked scared and lost. There were 5 besides the boy that had led them here, 2 girls and 3 boys. One of the boys was lying on the floor and moaning quietly.

“Here we are. This is our hiding place. I’m Richard or Rick for short, that short boy with the droopy eyes is Kevin, he and Stacey are the youngest. She is the one with the short red hair. The other girl is Lesley, she’s the oldest. The boy over there that seems to x-ray you with his stare is Nicolas or Nick and last but not least the boy on the floor is my cousin Edwin…” A moan from said boy made Rick grin. “… but he hates that name so we all just call him Ed.” Jamie looked closely at the children. Except for the Nick guy they looked weary and tired. Then her eyes landed on Ed and she frowned.

“What happened to him? Is he alright?” she asked worriedly.

“Don’t worry, he isn’t sick or anything. We were stealing fruit from the park next door when the guards came. He and Stacey got hurt. He’s got it a lot worse though.” Rick said, also frowning now.

“Can I see? I’ve got a first aid kit with me and I know a bit about this stuff.” Jamie offered and Rick waved his hand in invitation. The other children shuffled back slightly. Ed had been lying on a large canvas on his back but turned slightly and eyed the approaching girl suspiciously. Jamie shuffled closer and slowly stretched out her empty hands. Ed turned over and presented her with an injury on his right leg. It was slightly burnt at the edges and here and there yellow liquid oozed from the wound. It wasn’t too deep but Jamie knew that that didn’t necessarily mean something good, not with the weapons the guards used. Carefully she probed around the edges of the wound eliciting a pained hiss from the injured boy. She opened her hip bag and pulled out a pair of rubber gloves.

“It’s definitely festering, maybe even infected. Do you have clean water here? I have some but it’s not much and I’d rather keep it. I’d like to boil some before I use it but it’ll take too much time.” She declared and looked searchingly at the other children. The oldest girl moved to a shelf that Jamie had not yet realized was there and got a large container. From the sounds it made when it moved there was a liquid in it.

“We boil all of our water before we drink it. I make them, because we don’t know what might be in there. We don’t know if the weird fungus grows in water but we hope that boiling it will kill it if it does. We can do little else but until now none of us have gotten sick so that’s a good sign.” Her voice was astonishingly soft and calm even though her shaking hands betrayed her worry. Jamie nodded and took the bottle with a quiet “Thanks!” She pulled out a clean cloth and poured some of the water on it, then she cleaned the pus from the boy’s leg just around the wound. Taking another cloth and dampening it with universal disinfectant she softly padded it along the edge of the wound and removed the remaining pus from the wound. Another hiss told her that Ed was rather uncomfortable with the treatment. When she finished she hesitated.

“I don’t know if it is actually infected but I’ve got antibiotic powder here that I can put on the wound. It’s going to hurt like a bitch and you’ll have to wait a bit until it’s absorbed, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.” She looked at Ed and waited for his decision, it was his leg after all and if he didn’t think he’d be able to take the pain she’d accept it. After a short moment he just nodded and Jamie returned to her ministrations. She waved George forward and ordered him to hold the boy’s upper body still. She opened the bottle containing the antibiotic and then held the injured leg down. Without further preamble she tilted the bottle and let a good amount of the powder fall on Ed’s leg. The boy bit down on his knuckles to stop the scream, but his body jerked involuntarily and George and Jamie had to hold fast. The powder could still fall from the wound until it was completely absorbed and until then the pain would last. The small girl Stacey whimpered in the background but Jamie ignored her. When Ed finally stilled again George let go of him and moved aside to let Jamie work. She pulled a gauze pad from her bag and put it on the wound which she then wrapped with a bandage. Lastly she moved to Ed’s head and put a hand on his forehead.

“You’re slightly warm, it might be nothing, but if the wound is infected you might run a fever. I’ll give you one of the weaker fever reducers. They won’t hurt you if you don’t actually have one.” Jamie rummaged through her bag again and pulled out a small hypospray. It could be filled with five doses of the fever reducer and it was still full. She put it against Ed’s neck and injected the medicine.

“I can’t do more for him right now, but that should work out for now. Do you have bandages and disinfectant here or should I leave you some? He’ll need that wound rewrapped and checked a few times.” She declared and looked at Lesley and Rick. They were the oldest and would hopefully take care of Ed. Lesley answered immediately. “We were only concentrating on food. Rick wanted to go out and get something for Ed, but he came back with you two.” Rick nodded. “I was just on my way out when you stumbled in here. I didn’t have time to get anything yet.” Jamie nodded and pulled out a few bandages, gauze pads and the opened bottle of disinfectant. “If this isn’t enough, you can find us in the cellar of the burnt down house next to the blue house with the wonky windows.” Rick nodded to show he knew of said place. Then he looked up grinning. “Hey, I never got your names.” He exclaimed. They introduced themselves.

Rick struck up a conversation with George about where they had come from and how they were doing. Lesley approached Jamie. “Stacey got hurt too, could you take a look at her?” Jamie looked down at the small girl that was half hiding behind Lesley’s legs. “Sure thing. Now Stacey, were did you get hurt. Did they hit your leg too?” Stacey shook her head. She pointed to her left arm. Now that she pointed it out Jamie could see that it was oddly swollen. She pulled the sleeve up to examine it. There was no open wound and Jamie guessed that Stacey hadn’t gotten hit by a guard but probably slipped and fallen badly, maybe from one of the trees. Carefully she pressed against the swollen part and Stacey whimpered again. Jamie felt around the arm and pressed against the bone from the other side to check if it was broken. Another whimper from Stacey made her sigh. “I can’t tell if it’s broken, but the swelling worries me, it’s slightly warm to the touch. I’d say it’s at least sprained, but probably slightly broken if not completely. I’ll put it in a sling but you’ll have to make sure she doesn’t use it much, no heavy loads, no waving around. Try keeping it still and only use it in emergencies to get away or something. I’m sorry I can’t do more.” She sighed again and started with the treatment. Lesley watched her as she went about her business. “I feel so useless here. I’m supposed to be the oldest and most responsible, but I’m afraid that I haven’t got the slightest idea how to do any of this. I can’t even bandage a wound properly. And then I see you, you’re younger than me and so dependable. It makes me feel weak.” The older girl admitted and she looked positively miserable. Jamie smiled sadly. “I wouldn’t have any idea how to do this either, but my uncle Frank was an absolute bastard. He was a drunk and George and me we had to treat injuries rather often. We got used to it over the years, but I’m better at it because he usually took the damage for me and I patched him up afterwards.” The small girl admitted and chanced a glance at her brother. He had been quiet and withdrawn since the massacre, but now he seemed to be livelier again. He was animatedly talking with Rick and Ed.

“You worry about him. It’s odd. He’s your brother and if I’d have to guess I’d say older too. Shouldn’t he be worried about you?” Lesley asked. Jamie looked at her tiredly. “This whole thing has hit him harder than me I think. He hasn’t talked much since we left our house six days ago. We’ve had it bad before we came here, our uncle Frank being the bastard he was. This was supposed to be safe for us, we were supposed to be finally free and be children for once. He can still remember having that with mom when he was smaller. She left us with Frank when I turned five. The last year with her was horrible, she got all depressed and we already lived with Frank then. I don’t remember much of my time with her, I hardly remember her at all. George still has some memories of a time when he was all carefree and happy. This was supposed to be like back then again. The horrors just seem to follow us… or maybe it’s me. I know little different than fear and sneaking around, going hungry now and then. Two days ago was the worst though.” Jamie sighed and relayed the events that had brought them to the main town. When she told her of the massacre Lesley went white as a sheet.

“You were there? You saw it all happen? We heard it from a distance and it was enough to turn our stomachs. Rick and I distracted the others and kept them occupied, but it was horrible to hear all those screams.” Jamie looked at her wearily. “I promised myself not to give up, but it is sometimes hard to put one foot in front of the other. I can’t help but wonder what use it is to go on, but then I remind myself of George and now also of Theo and Clea. I have to be strong. I have to pull us through. I owe it to myself and George and probably also to my father. He gave his life to save a lot of people mine included. It just seems wrong to give up when he gave me a chance.” Jamie sighed again. She didn’t like this topic very much. Her father was still a sore spot; she couldn’t help but feel insignificant whenever his name got mentioned. Luckily Lesley was more interested in hearing more about Theo and Clea and Jamie gladly obliged.

When they finally turned to leave Rick stopped them and handed them a few of the fruits they had stolen from the park. “The trees in there are not native to this part of the planet but they grow pretty well. The fungus hadn’t spread there yet, so we just grabbed as many fruits as we could and ran. They’ve just become ripe or they would have been gone much earlier, believe me.” He flashed them a grin, promised to visit them in their cellar soon and then they left.

When they reached their own little hideout and climbed down into the cellar the first thing that met them was a crying Theo. He clutched onto Jamie’s trousers and bawled like the little child he was. When she at last managed to calm him down, Jamie found out that he had been worried whether they would return or not and he had told his little sister the entire time that everything was fine and that their protectors would return, but he had had nobody to tell him the same and Jamie felt really bad about not having returned sooner.

 

The next day Jamie and George got lucky, when they were scouting out a new place to loot and a young woman stuck her head out of a window and called to them. At first they were wary, but in the end intrigue and need for food won out and they approached her. She handed them some food saying that she didn’t agree with Kodos and that children shouldn’t be left to starve on the streets. They thanked her profusely before bringing their haul home. Jamie thought the entire way back that it might be a good idea to mark the houses they searched so they didn’t accidentally search through them twice losing time better spent looking for food. The incident with the nice woman also made her consider that there might be more people willing to help. Their houses should be marked too. She finally decided to use a circle-based system when they arrived home. She returned to the house of the young woman shortly before dusk and carved a simple circle into the wall with a single dot in the center. She returned to George, Theo and Clea and prepared for the night. In the darkness of the cellar Jamie realized that they had been on the run for a week already. She couldn’t quite decipher her feelings. On the one hand she was of course happy to be alive, but the worry for herself her brother and the other children made her stomach knot in anxiety. The hope that a Starfleet ship could not be far away now mixed with the fear that there might be no ship coming. What if Kodos had said that he had alarmed Starfleet but had never actually done so? That night Jamie slept fitfully.

 

In the morning they got a bit of a shock. They got woken by footsteps on the floor above. Jamie was immediately in action. She pulled Theo and Clea from the bedroll and shoved them into the tunnel. George needed a bit more time but then he followed. Jamie was to leave last and she knew the moment the stairs creaked that she would not make it into the tunnel in time. She decided to cover the tunnel entrance instead and protect them from whoever had come looking for runaways. She pulled out her knife and stood her ground. To her great surprise it wasn’t a guard that descended the stairs but Rick and Lesley. Jamie didn’t know if she should laugh or scream. Quickly, before they got too far in, she called back her brother and the other two cohabitants.

“I thought you were guards. What were you doing stomping around up there like two elephants?” she hissed in indignation when she had finally calmed down. Lesley looked sheepish but Rick had a broad grin plastered to his face.

“Not everyone can be as stealthy as you, Jamie.” He explained happily. “So this is your hideout? Not bad, not bad, but don’t you think it’s a bit too easy to find?” Jamie shrugged.

“The tunnel is too small for adults to fit through, so they can’t follow us if we run.” Lesley and Rick looked at everything in the small cellar while the four inhabitants moved back to their bedrolls. When he was satisfied with his exploration of the place Rick turned to Theo and Clea. “So you are Clea and Theo, huh? George and Jamie told us about you yesterday. They helped us with some injuries. You found some good protectors, did you know that?” He squatted down and ruffled Clea’s hair. He then turned back to Jamie. “Ed is much better now, he stopped moaning and complaining yesterday and today he was even able to walk a bit. He’s limping a bit, but he says it’s mostly because of the pain and not really because of any lasting damage.” Lesley pitched in then. “Stacey’s arm looks worse though. It’s swollen even more overnight. Is there really nothing else you can do?” Jamie chewed her bottom lip. “I’d have to see her to be sure.” Rick nodded to Lesley and she left the cellar. “We took them along in case you wanted to see them but Lesley and I went first just in case.” Barely a minute passed before Lesley returned with Stacey and Kevin in tow. “We left Nick with Ed, but Kevin wanted to come along.” Lesley clarified when she saw Jamie’s questioning look. Jamie was satisfied with that explanation and beckoned Stacey forward. She took the right arm from the sling she had made the day before and felt the swelling. It was indeed bigger and slightly warmer than the day before. She went to the tunnel and heaved out the box she had put all the meds in. She rifled through the hyposprays and bottles of medicine until she was rewarded. She pulled out a small spray bottle. “It’s not the best solution there is, ice or a cold compress would be better, but this is cooling spray, it should help the swelling recede.” She shook the bottle and then sprayed the cooling liquid on Stacey’s arm. “I’ll give the bottle to you, you can apply the stuff regularly…” She looked at the instructions. “…every four hours if needed but not more often.” She handed the bottle over to Lesley, who thanked her profusely.

“Oh before I forget it…” Jamie hurried back to the tunnel and pulled out some of the food they had left behind from the nice lady from the day before. “We got this from one of the safe ones. It’s perfectly edible and we’ve got some more. You are six people and we’re only four. It must be hard to get enough food, especially now with two injured. We will be able to make do with what we have for some time, so there.” She stretched out her hand to offer the food she had wrapped in an old shawl. Lesley and Rick seemed surprised by that offer but accepted it after some indecision. A moment later Rick brightened up. “We’ve got something for you too.” He clambered up the stairs and a clanging sound started. Jamie followed him to find the source of the noise and came upon Rick trying to move a large medicine cabinet, completely made of metal and all. “We couldn’t break it open, but we thought you might, and since it’s for you anyways we brought it along.” Jamie guessed that that had been the reason for the heavy footsteps from earlier. She helped Rick carry the huge thing down the stairs and stored it away in their concealed corner. She inspected the lock on the cabinet and after some thought waved George over. “I think this is one of your specialties, George. It’s like the lock on Frank’s mailbox.” The boy pulled out his Swiss army knife and Jamie handed him a hair pin she had taken to carrying around since Frank had started locking the food cabinets. Only moments later the cabinet door swung open and revealed a large amount of meds and dressing material.

“Rick here nearly broke his neck when he pulled it from the wall in the school we used to go to. Nearly got us caught with the noise he was making and then we had to take a powder because the guards were flooding in. We hid the cabinet by the library and then went into hiding until the coast was clear. Took us the best part of the afternoon to drag it back home, but he was convinced that you could use it.” Lesley said with playful admonishment. Her brow was furrowed but her eyes were sparkling merrily. Rick grinned back without any trace of remorse.

“It’s brilliant!” Jamie approved. “There is almost everything we could need in there, well, except for ice of course. Maybe we could ask the nice lady if she has some.” She looked questioningly over to George who just shrugged. Jamie thought about it for a second before she came to a decision. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.” She left Lesley and Rick completely confused and George just shook his head. “Yesterday this woman gave us food because she thought that children shouldn’t starve no matter what. She told you about it before. That’s where we got the food. She’s probably going to run there again and ask the woman if she’s got some ice for Stacey.”

It didn’t take her long to return and when she did she triumphantly waved a plastic bag. “She had some ice and she said if we bring her water she’ll put it in her cooler.” She handed the plastic bag over to Lesley. “How will we know where to ask?” Lesley inquired. “I marked it with a symbol next to the entrance door. I made up a system yesterday to mark the houses here. A circle with a dot in the center means it’s safe to knock or enter depending on whether it’s inhabited or one of the empty houses. A circle with an x means it’s not safe to enter or whoever lives in there is an enemy. A circle with a single line from bottom left to top right means that the house has already been ransacked and there is nothing left to gain by entering. A circle with a K in it means there is one of Kodos’ men living in there so there is extra care needed. I’ll probably make up more signs if needed, but I thought the basic idea was good.” Lesley and Rick exchanged looks. “That’s friggin’ brilliant that is. It’ll be so much safer if we mark all the houses like that.” Jamie blushed slightly and smiled. “I thought of a way to know where allies lived and where we had already been and then I thought that we would need a way to make sure our enemies didn’t sabotage our markings and I thought this was a good way. You can turn a circle with a dot in the center into a circle with an x but you can’t revert it. So if someone who we thought of as trustworthy turns out evil we can give him an x but if they catch on to our system they can’t turn the x back into a dot.”

Lesley and Rick were absolutely enthralled. They decided to adopt the system and use it from then on. They only stayed for a short while before they left to hunt for food. Jamie and George knew that they could not relax either. They needed as much food as possible to survive until Starfleet could come save them.

 

As the days passed Jamie and George met more groups of refugees. Most consisted only of children, the adults stayed more on their own. Sometimes Rick’s group introduced them to new survivors and they shared stories and important information. Jamie and George turned out to be nearly the only ones with medical skills among the children and Jamie quickly turned into the go-to person for injuries of any kind. The other groups were for the most part as impressed with Jamie’s marking system that it got adopted by nearly everyone they met. With more people to fulfill the task it took barely the rest of the second week to get all the houses in the city marked. Jamie had to invent new symbols, because some of the groups had established close relations with some of the 4,000 with access to food. Two new signs joined the first four. The sign for ally with an arrow was now a signal that there was a secret passageway hidden in the house protected by the inhabitants. The sign for danger or enemy with an arrow was used to show that there was a hidden tunnel somewhere in the house but it was risky to get to it, either because the house could collapse any moment or because the inhabitant would rather turn them over to Kodos than help them.

Some of the adults didn’t only share their food but also helped the injured. Jamie visited several of them to brush up on her own skills. By the end of the week Jamie and George had met all the people they would be close with until help arrived. Of course there were the six children they had met on their third day in town: Lesley, Rick, Ed, Nick, Kevin and Stacey. Stacey’s arm had gotten better even though it was still slightly swollen and Jamie insisted that she keep it in the sling if possible. Ed had healed quickly. Admittedly the wound was still there and it hurt every now and then, but he had regained mobility and as long as he didn’t overwork his leg he complained little.

Then there were the siblings Theo and Clea. They moved in with Rick’s group together with Jamie and George. Rick had been right that the cellar they had first stayed in wasn’t safe enough. After they were nearly found by some guards Rick offered that they might stay with his lot and they readily agreed.

On the third day of the second week Jamie and George stumbled across Kevin who everyone called by his surname Riley as to not confuse him with the other Kevin. He was in the company of Thomas Leighton who had gotten injured quite badly when he had been surprised by a guard patrol one night. Jamie had patched him up as well as she could, but she doubted that he would regain the sight in his left eye.

Cassandra was another new addition to Rick’s group. She was quiet and cold and stayed mostly by herself though she liked to chat with Lesley and now and then even Jamie. She had brought her little niece along, a one-year-old girl named Madeline with a burn scar on the left side of her face and one on her left arm. Cassandra was the one who decided that Jamie’s name was not tough enough for someone like her. Cassandra was of the opinion that Jamie needed a cool name that would make people think twice before they crossed her. Kevin was the one who finally came up with Jim and even though Cassy was not satisfied Jamie quite liked her new name and decided to use it.

On the last day of the second week Lesley and Jamie were out looking for food. They had already tried their luck with the allies in the vicinity but had yet to be successful. There were just too many runaway children on the streets for the willing helpers to feed. The guards had also increased their searches and anyone found helping someone marked for death on the list was taken away. Lesley had found a house as of yet unmarked and waved Jim inside. It was one of the burnt down houses and it looked like it had recently collapsed. Jim was rummaging through the remains of what appeared to be a kitchen when a muffled scream caught her attention. She hurried through the rubble that had once been the hallway into the former nursery. Lesley had shifted some of the debris and come across what looked to Jamie like a human child. Burn marks and bruises littered its skin, but what astonished Jim the most was the fact that the child seemed to be still alive, barely breathing but still there. She hurried over and quickly helped Lesley shift the wreckage from on top of the child. Jim was unsure how to proceed since she didn’t want to hurt the child more. Lesley had less trouble with deciding on the best way to act and more with keeping the contents of her stomach where they belonged. She was breathing heavily and Jim couldn’t fault her. The burn wounds weren’t as simple and clean as Ed’s had been. This child had several third-degree burns and its left leg had a fourth-degree burn that had caused the leg below the burn and the foot to turn black. The wound seemed to have started rotting and the smell was horrible. Jim had to swallow twice to calm her twisting stomach but she had more important things to concentrate on and through sheer force of will she ignored her upset digestive system.

Softly touching the shoulder of the unfortunate victim she shifted the body so the child, a boy no older than 6, lay on its side. Jim could see that she was hurting him. A moan from the boy made Jim shift her attention to his face. His eyes fluttered and opened completely but they didn’t focus on either of the girls. It was as if he was searching for someone or something but couldn’t quite get his eyes to concentrate. Jim knew there was little life left in the boy and she would do almost anything to make his departure easier. “Hello there. We found you in here. Can we help you?” she asked and surprisingly enough she received an answer. “Run… Hide…“ His eyes fell shut again and his breathing became more and more labored. “You can rest now. You did well.” Jim said blinking away a tear that threatened to fall. A sigh told her that the boy heard her. His eyes didn’t open again but he managed a silent “Finally!” before he lost consciousness.

Jim looked at Lesley. She knew that there was no help for the boy and if she had hoped for an answer in Lesley’s face she was sadly disappointed. The older girl had the same helpless expression though she let her tears flow freely. “There is nothing I can do to help.” Jim said and her voice was raspy. Lesley shook her head and closed her eyes. “You can’t save everyone, Jim, though I know you try.” Jamie looked at the heavily breathing form of the boy, stared at his face contorted in pain and came to a decision. “I’ll make it quick for him. We can’t save him and I can’t just leave him here in pain. You don’t have to watch. Wait in the kitchen for me, I’ll be there shortly.” Lesley left, looking back only once. Jim got her knife out and with shaking hands did what she had never believed herself capable of, she deliberately ended a life.

When the two girls returned with solemn expressions they were immediately surrounded by their friends. Jim sat slightly apart from the others. Lesley meanwhile described what had happened to them and what Jim had done. When she told them about the boy Cassandra came over and sat down next to Jim.

“You’re a good person, you know that don’t you?” she asked calmly. Jim looked at her, her eyes haunted, her hands shaking. “I never thought I could kill someone. I mean consciously. I killed my uncle Frank. He came home drunk and he was even worse than usual, George and I were in the kitchen. He saw us eating and flew into a rage, said we were ungrateful and that he should have never taken us in. He tried to hurt us and we knew that he wouldn’t stop at injuries this time, he’d kill us, and so we defended ourselves. There was a struggle and I hit him over the head with a saucepan. I didn’t mean to kill him and I told myself that I’d never be able to murder someone, you know, deliberately. It helped me with my guilt. He was a bastard, but a life is a life and I ended one. Now I can’t use that excuse anymore though. I killed that boy with the full intention to do so. Does that make me a monster too?” Cassandra put her arms on Jim’s shoulders. “You’re not a monster, Jamie; on the contrary, I’ve never met someone so kind and selfless like you. You spared him the suffering he would have had to endure otherwise and from what I heard from Lesley you even made sure that he was at peace with himself. I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been and I don’t envy you, but you did the right thing. No one here will think less of you for what you did.”

Cassandra was right insofar that none of the children thought less of her, on the contrary, they seemed to eye her with renewed reverence, but there seemed to be a new distance between Jim and the others. It seemed as if the mercy killing had made her less of an equal and more of a leader. It was something the others believed themselves incapable of; even George kept throwing doubtful glances her way.

 

The third week brought new horrors. Kodos announced that there were still too many unwanted people on the streets which resulted in a too fast decrease in food reserves. Therefore food distribution would be lowered to ensure the survival of the superior people and discourage them to share with any unwanted individuals. It had the desired effect; food was so scarce that barely any of the unmarked ones shared with the marked children. Still, they needed to eat and so the marked children turned towards Jim, their new chosen leader, for guidance. Jamie put up only token resistance; after all there was little choice. At the beginning of the week she organized a raid on one of the large food storages that had been as of yet unaffected by the fungus. With most of the marked children following her it was easier than first expected. The exaltation was short lived though, because the security measures on all food related buildings were raised tenfold. Kodos even ordered his guards to install computer locks to safeguard the food storages.

A new way to acquire food appeared then. People started offering food in exchange for something. The easiest was a day’s worth of hard work. The ‘employers’ wouldn’t need as much food since they were doing nothing strenuous and could therefore spare some for the children, though the food was usually stale or moldy.

Some of Kodos’ closest demanded the worst. They had access to the best food remaining and few of them were benevolent. Either one had to spend the entire day offering one’s body for some sexual activity or other, or one got used as a punching bag to release pent up frustration and stress.

This method of acquiring food gained popularity when the guards tried to prevent the raids from happening by guarding food storages that contained poisoned food. The raiders would return home with their prize only to find it inedible.

 

Jamie and the marked children found out about it after an attack on one of the least guarded food stores. Jamie had taken a group of older children along for the day. First they knocked out the two guards, and then Jamie hacked into the security computer keeping the store locked. It didn’t take long; Jamie had always had a hand for computer systems. Still, she felt it was a bit odd that they had managed to get in quite so easily.

The storage was almost empty but Jamie and the other children took as much as they could carry and ran for it before the guards woke up or a patrol came by. Back in Rick’s hideout, which had quickly become some sort of base camp, Jamie split up the food equally among the children. Kevin took a wrinkly apple and bit into it. Jamie was the first to notice that something was wrong. The small boy was short of breath and after a short while his nose was starting to bleed. She jumped up and raced over to the boy after shouting: “Do not eat the food. DO NOT EAT IT!” Kevin was looking panicked by then. Jim sniffed at the apple and cursed quite loudly and immediately ripped open the medicine cabinet. She rifled through the stacks and stacks of bottles and boxes until she finally found a smallish box with round pills. She didn’t have time to look whether she could find a hypo. It would have been faster acting than the pill but if there was none she would lose vital moments. She hurried back to Kevin’s side. The boy was shivering and tears were mixing with the blood running from his nose. “Swallow this!” Jim ordered and Kevin obeyed immediately. He stuffed the little pill in his mouth and swallowed with difficulty. Jamie was holding him upright. He had barely eaten the medicine when his eyes fell closed and he became heavy in Jamie’s arms. Jamie tried to shake him awake, but it was no use. His breath was barely there and Jim could feel his pulse slowing down. “Come on, Kev.” She whispered urgently but not one minute later Kevin took his last breath. Jamie bowed her head and pulled the little boy to her chest. “I’m so sorry.” She whispered over and over until someone touched her shoulder. Lesley was there looking very white and shaken, tears glistening in her eyes. Jamie handed the small body over to the other girl and stood. Without a word she collected the food she had just started to divide and stuffed it back inside the bags they had brought it home in. When she was done she looked up to see frightened faces watching her. “Burn these, they aren’t edible. They poisoned the food with fast acting rodent poison.” She left the children sitting there walking to a small room in the cellar that had been a supply closet before they turned it into their planning office. She looked at the map with all the food stores marked on it and before she could control herself she hit the wall once, twice, three times before slumping down. “Too easy, I said it was too easy. Why didn’t I trust my instincts?” she berated herself.

 

Jamie found herself hard-pressed to find a way to prevent the marked children from eating more poisoned food. She added two new symbols to the list, an oval with three parallel lines from the top the middle, somewhat reminiscent of a very childish picture of a loaf of bread, for an untainted food storage and the same symbol crossed out for a trap. She and George took to traversing the city and keeping all the storages they could find under surveillance and, if in doubt about the edibleness of the food they stole, tested small quantities themselves. Three times Jamie nearly died. She only survived because she kept the pills of general antidote with her at all times. They didn’t have many so it was impossible to just hand them out.

 

The guards turned more and more vicious as time went on. At the beginning of week three they already shot without warning at anyone who moved, aiming for the right side of the body to permanently incapacitate their victims, by the end of the week it was apparent that anyone caught outside was fair game. Despite Kodos’ assurance that the chosen 4,000 would have nothing to fear the guards did not check before shooting. The hellhole that was Tarsus IV turned into utter civil-war-like chaos.

Jamie and George led most of the groups that dared venture outside in search of food and Jim felt responsible every time someone did not return. It pained her to see the trusting looks on the children’s faces and she hated that none of them seemed to blame her if someone got caught. None of them seemed to understand that she had sworn to protect them all and yet she failed so many. It made her wish to be stronger every day and she turned restless and obsessed.

She started to teach the children to silently signal one another on the streets. She invented a sign to identify oneself as an ally. It was a left-handed salute followed by moving the left hand palm up downwards. It was the symbol for ‘Kodos falls’, a common hope that united them in their efforts.

 

On the fifth day of the third week Jim came across a smoking building. It seemed that the guards had tried to burn the house, but the material it was built of hadn’t caught properly. Some of the rooms looked burnt; others had been nearly untouched by the fire. The guards had started to drag anyone opposing Kodos from their houses and burning everything to the ground. She remembered that house and its inhabitants. A Vulcan couple had lived in there. They were researchers and had critiqued Kodos’ decisions more than once. Jim supposed that they had complained too loudly. The last time she had been close by the Vulcan woman had discussed reporting their findings to the authorities the moment a Starfleet ship arrived with her husband. Maybe Jim hadn’t been the only one to hear it. She had quite liked the couple; they had given her food more than once. Jim remembered that they had had a daughter barely a month old. She wondered what had become of her.

Afterwards Jim wouldn’t be able to say why she went into the house, but she did. It must have been her instincts guiding her, for she found herself in a messy room with clothes scattered about. She was just about to leave when a soft wailing noise alerted her to the presence of another living being. Pulling a few clothes aside Jim came face to face with the Vulcan baby. The mother must have calculated that its chances of survival would be highest if she hid it in the house instead of taking it along, especially since Jamie had come by regularly. Jim picked the tiny creature up and brushed her hand lightly against its cheek. Immediately the wailing stopped. This would be the third baby they brought home to their hiding place. Madeline had been the first and Rick had brought a boy back two days later. Jim sighed. These children would not remember ever having been here and yet, if she had anything to do with it, they would count among the survivors. She pulled open a few drawers and packed a bag with diapers, milk powder and other necessities. Cassandra would be relieved, she had been running out of milk powder since she couldn’t go and buy more without risking to be dragged off and murdered.

Loud voices pulled Jamie from her work and she swiftly left the house, keeping to the shadows and swiftly making her way back to their hideout.

 

The fourth week started with another tragedy for Jamie. Some of the older girls and even some boys had started selling themselves to Kodos’ elite to get some food since the attacks on the food storages were producing less and less edible food. It seemed that in an attempt to make it especially hard the guards had started storing the food reserves in as many different food storages as possible resulting in very small quantities of food per storage and even these small amounts decreased with time making it virtually impossible to get enough food for all the children on the streets. Still, Jamie would not give up and so she found herself on a raid in the early morning hours with Rick, her brother and six other children. Lesley and Cassandra had offered to accompany her, but she had refused. Jim trusted very few besides Cassandra and herself to take care of the three babies in her personal care. Lesley needed to stay behind to look after Stacey. She had been worryingly silent since Kevin’s death and her arm was still injured.

Jamie signaled her companions to circle the building they were attempting to hit. She would attack from this side and Rick and George were stationed between two large buildings to her left. There were fore guards. Jamie and another boy would try to take out one, Rick and George the second and the last two would be taken out simultaneously by the remaining five. On her signal they attacked. The guards went down easily and Jamie went to hack the computer. She had a good feeling about the contents of the storage when she needed three attempts to get past the algorithm protecting the door. It was very unusual for the guards to put up such a strong defense for a poisoned store. When she was done she waved the others inside. They opened their backpacks and stuffed them with food. It was one of the larger stores and Jamie was half angry with herself for not having brought more people to carry the food but she reminded herself that there were three more groups hitting different storages that morning. Hopefully they would be as successful. They hurried since they couldn’t be sure when the guards would change. It had been easier to predict which storages contained poisoned food than what schedules the guards had. Jamie waited until all of them were outside before she followed. They were making their way back as quickly as possible without being overly loud or obvious.

A few streets from their cellar George cried out and Jamie screamed “Scatter!” before turning around to see what had caused her brother to call out. Her blood nearly froze in her veins. A guard had somehow spotted them without them spotting him and he had attacked George. The boy was lying on the street with the man over him, bearing down on George. Without thinking much Jim pulled out her folding knife and jumped the guard. She stabbed the blade into his throat since she was too weak and her blade too short to do much damage to his chest. She moved the weapon around a bit until the guard stopped crying out in pain. He slumped on her brother and Jamie quickly pushed him aside. She hoped that George had only been surprised by the guard’s sudden appearance or at the most been slightly injured, but all hope was lost when she saw the large knife sticking out of her brother’s side. George coughed and whimpered and Jim bent down cradling his head in her lap. “I’m sorry, Georgy. I’m so sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. I don’t know what to do. Please, George, forgive me. I wasn’t good enough.” Tears were dripping onto George’s cheeks but Jim didn’t wipe them away. The boy raised his arm gently caressing his sister’s cheek. “Shhhh!” he soothed his sister. “Shhhh! It’s fine, Jamie. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you. I wouldn’t even have made it past the massacre. I’d have just run out there and they’d have shot me. They are right, you know. You are a good leader and I believe that you will get them through this. I just wasn’t fast enough. Dad would be proud. He’d agree with me. Don’t cry for me Jamie, it’s not going to hurt much longer for me, but you have to be strong. Be strong for the others and be strong for me. Will you promise me? Promise me that you will make it out alive.” George wheezed, coughing every now and then and breathing heavily. Jamie sobbed as quietly as she could, nodding her head vigorously. “I promise, Georgy. I promise that I will make it out of here and I will prove that bastard wrong. I will live for us both, I will have the best life of them all and I will take as many of the children with me as I can. You just wait and see. I swear, Georgy, I swear.” George just smiled at her though his face was otherwise contorted in pain. Footsteps were approaching and Jamie looked up, hesitant. She didn’t want to leave her brother behind. He was the only proper family she had left beside her mother, though Jamie rarely counted her mother. “Go, Jamie, go. They need you. Go before they catch you. Make me proud.” Her brother pushed at Jim and she got up. It broke her heart to turn around and run but run she did. With tears streaming down her cheeks she ran and ran until she reached the old cellar they had first hidden in and she curled up into a ball behind the shelves, crying softly for her brother, for her uncle, for her aunt, for little Kevin, for all the people that had died, that she had been unable to save, for the children that had died on her watch and for herself, because she was still too weak to prove Kodos wrong.

 

It was late when she finally got back to the others. There were relieved shouts and she was immediately surrounded by a large group. All of the children wanted to know where she had been and what had happened. Jamie’s face didn’t betray anything. The tears had long since stopped and she had wiped away the tear tracks. Cassandra watched her closely from the background while Jim explained that a guard had surprised them on their return journey and they had had no other choice but to split up. She had stayed behind and killed the guard, staying by her brother’s side until more guards had cut their goodbye short. The children exchanged looks that Jamie couldn’t place. They were awed and sad and worried but there seemed to be so much more to them. When the curiosity of her friends was finally sated she asked how the other groups had fared. They reported that they had had no casualties and that the food storages they had attacked had contained untainted food. They had had varying luck with the amount of food they had found in the storages but overall their day had been good and they would have enough food for the day. Jamie didn’t pause to rest; she started distributing the food between the leaders of the small groups.

Cassandra intercepted her when Jamie was done with splitting the food and on her way to plan for the next day. “Jamie, how are you?” she asked softly. Jim had cried all the tears she had that day and now she felt just empty, but she couldn’t tell Cassandra that, the girl would worry, so she settled for: “It’ll get better.” The older girl looked unblinking deep into Jamie’s eyes for a long time until she nodded and sighed. “If you need me, I’ll be available any time. Please don’t blame yourself though. We are all dependent on you, so was George, and you gave us the chance that we didn’t dare hope for when this all began. Without you Ed would have died from that leg wound, Stacey might not be able to move her arm, Madeline would have starved by now and most of the rest wouldn’t have made it either. You are a good leader. You organize us and you are fair. Look at Theo and Clea, they can’t help in any way and yet they get food. With a different leader many of us would have been left to die. I was worried when I first met you lot, because I had my baby niece with me. I didn’t know how you would react to her. I wondered if you would demand I leave her behind or something. You treat us all as equals and even though it’s sometimes hard to make decisions you make them. I look up to you, you are so young and yet you have so much courage, so much kindness and so much strength. We slow you down and yet you are upset that you aren’t strong enough to drag each and every last one of us. If you hadn’t cared about us, had just done your own thing, you’d have food stashes to last you the rest of the year, but you sacrificed your own chances to help people you just met. You might not think anything of it, but when this woman came here the other day asking for medical treatment and you just treated her without asking who she was I was really surprised. And then when a few of the boys complained that she was an unmarked and that you shouldn’t treat her because she is not one of us you just said that everybody deserves your help and that you won’t send her away, I couldn’t believe my ears. I could see that most of the others were frightened of the guys and wouldn’t have stepped in if it had come to a fight and yet you were so calm, saying all this stuff. I don’t know if you knew but they were really grumpy until yesterday when one of them came home with that huge wound and you treated him without a nasty word or malice. They shut up after that. I think they realized that you will try to get us all through this, no matter what your personal feelings are. You are sacrificing everything for us, Jamie. Never forget that. We owe you our lives.” Cassandra squeezed Jamie’s hands and then left, leaving Jim to her conflicted feelings.

 

On the third day of week four one of the girls came back in the evening saying that she had heard from her ‘employer’ that Kodos was looking for girls. The man had said that the payment was extremely good, a lot of fresh food, even fruits and vegetables. Jamie asked after the specifics. The girl replied that he was looking for three or more girls preferably with blond or red hair and no older than 17. Jamie wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Walking into Kodos’ place practically saying that they were marked ones might be a very bad idea, but if he asked for them he might actually look the other way regarding their status on Tarsus IV. If Jim was perfectly honest with herself they needed the food and this was as usual on her head. If she said no and they didn’t get any food everyone who starved would be her fault, if she said yes and Kodos lured them into a trap it would also be her fault. She thought about it the entire day asking a few people about their opinion. In the evening she joined Cassandra and Madeline with the Vulcan baby she had started to take care of.

“I still haven’t decided what to do about the Kodos thing. I know we need the food, but I worry what might happen to the people I send. I won’t order anyone to go, their bodies are not mine, so I can’t force them to do anything, but if nobody goes and we starve than I will blame myself for eternity.” She admitted while feeding the little pointy eared baby. Cassandra watched her closely.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it must be to make these decisions.” After a short pause the older girl added “If there is still a girl missing, I’ll do it. You have done so much for me and Lina here, I want to repay you. I will do it willingly for all of us. Just promise me that Madeline will be cared for if I don’t come back.” Jamie looked alarmed at that but promised Cassandra. “I would make sure she is taken care of even if you were the laziest person here. You have taken care of little pointy ears here so you are obviously not.” She assured her older friend. Lesley plopped down next to Cassandra then. She caressed Madeline’s cheek, sighed and then looked determinedly at Jamie. “I’ll do it too. I can see how desperately we need food and I have been staying down here for too long. I want to help.” Jim frowned at her friends. “I can take you along on a raid if you want to help, you don’t need to sell your bodies to be of use.” She tried to dissuade them, but both girls just shook their heads. “This is something only we can do, the boys can go on the raids and I’d rather it be me than some young girl. Let us do this, Jamie.” Cassandra pleaded and Lesley nodded. Jim sighed. “Fine, you can go, it is your choice after all, but I’ll come along. You are not used to sneaking around and fighting. You’ll need someone to watch your back.” Cassandra and Lesley looked uncertain. “Are you sure? You are our leader, if something happens to you who will get the rest of us through this?” Lesley asked carefully. The youngest of the three looked around and spotting the boys called Rick and Thomas over.

“Rick, Thomas, tomorrow Lesley, Cassandra and I are going to take Kodos up on his offer. We aren’t sure yet if it’s a trap or a genuine offer, so if we aren’t back by the next morning you take over from where I left off. You two don’t fight, this is more important than petty rivalries. If I find out that you ran this into the ground because you couldn’t agree on anything I’m going to haunt you from the afterlife.” Lesley and Cassandra chuckled softly, but Thomas and Rick looked worried. “I’ll explain the maps and everything to you today and hopefully you won’t need it, but if worst comes to worst you will be prepared and you’ll get them through this. Under no circumstances are you to come looking for us. If we don’t return you are to assume that we are dead. We don’t need anyone running of getting themselves killed, and no vendettas. Kodos is too hard to kill; I saw his personal guard and you won’t get past them.” Rick and Thomas nodded mutely. “Oh, and if none of us make it make sure that Madeline and this little one are cared for and don’t forget Stacey. It hit her hard enough when Kevin died, don’t let her get depressed, distract her and make sure she cools her arm regularly and doesn’t overexert herself.” Jamie gave both of the boys a stern look and when they promised to do as she asked she nodded in satisfaction.

 

That evening Jamie introduced the boys to her raid system. She explained how she chose the people for each group and which storages to hit. She marked the places on the map where they knew the storages were empty, poisoned or infected by the fungus. She showed them the stores that were too heavily guarded or too much in the open to be safe. In the end she also wrote down a list of every person able to take part in a raid and what their respective abilities were and then drew up a rough list of raids for the rest of the week. “Follow this one as closely as you deem safe. If in doubt ask the people, they can tell you with whom they work well and who has had a lot of success as a group. Any injuries should be looked at by Ed, I taught him a bit since he felt so useless with his leg. The most important command is ‘Scatter’, don’t worry about overusing it. If the guard patrols should increase make everyone go home by themselves after a successful raid; it’s better to lose a few than everyone. And make sure that you’re not followed. Starfleet can’t be too far away. Not long now. Just hold on a little longer, maybe this week, maybe the next. Don’t give up. Promise me that.” Again Rick and Tom promised her, but her worries didn’t decrease. It didn’t feel right to leave these children to fend for themselves, but she knew that she would regret it if she didn’t go with Cassandra and Lesley tomorrow. She had to protect her friends. Once again sleep didn’t come easily and it was accompanied by nightmares about the monster that was responsible for their suffering.

 

Cassandra and Lesley were just as nervous as Jamie, if not more. They hadn’t been out in the city in quite some time. They had a hard time following Jim through the shadows. The sun was still low in the sky. They were expected to arrive early at the governor’s mansion at the town square. Jamie thought it was rather macabre that she would return to the place of the gruesome massacre to sell her body to the man responsible for it. Twice they had to hide to evade guard patrols. Finally they reached the square and Jim could read in Cassy’s and Lesley’s faces that they thought much the same about the situation as she had. There were two guards standing in front of the door to the mansion. Jamie signaled the others to stay behind and hidden. She walked through the shadows around the square and approached the guards from the side. They eyed her before asking if she was alone and whether she wasn’t aware that Kodos had demanded at least three girls. Slightly reassured since she was still in one piece Jim waved her friends over. They, just like her before, did not cross the square but moved around it. They glanced left and right when they finally left the safety of the houses. “So it’s you three then? Very well, follow me.” One of the guards ordered them and entered the large house. He brought them to a big room with a huge bed and many cushions. Jamie felt like she had just entered a harem when the guard demanded them to stand against the wall. He checked all of them for weapons. He found Jamie’s folding knife and gave her a withering look before continuing on. Jim was slightly surprised that he did not find George’s Swiss Army Knife that she had carried around ever since he died. She hadn’t hidden it very well. She felt a bit safer with the weight of the weapon. When the guard was done he led them into an adjoining room. “Dress in one of these and don’t dally. The Governor will be here shortly.” Said the guard and left. Cassandra and Lesley looked to Jamie for orders on how to proceed. Jim picked up one of the short, see-through dresses and frowned at it. Well, this was demeaning, but there was nothing that could be done now. She let out a long breath and started changing, the other two followed suit.

When they were all dressed in the skimpy outfits they left the room and returned to the one with the bed. Jamie was happy that Kodos was not yet there. She took George’s knife and hid it underneath one of the pillows. She was not one second too early for the governor chose that moment to appear. He looked as healthy as he had when he had spoken to the damned. It made Jamie’s stomach turn. How was it that this man did not suffer for his inhumane behavior, on the contrary, he seemed to be wrapped up in the positive results his misdeeds had brought about. Jamie had to force herself not to clench her fists.

“Well, well, well. So you three have come to work for what you don’t deserve.” The man said gleefully. Jamie couldn’t stop herself. “Deserving is subjective.” She bit her tongue and bowed her head. This was not the right time to antagonize this man. She had to think about Lesley and Cassandra. “You’ve got fire.” The governor observed, his eyes alight with malice. “I think you’ll be the first.”

By noon Kodos the monster had had his fun with each of them at least once and he paused his enjoyment to eat something. Jim couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the feast that he had for himself. They were starving, eating half rotten fruit and getting sick from it while Kodos stuffed himself with all kinds of delicacies. Even when he allowed them to join him her loathing did not abate. What hypocrisy. After his lunch Kodos started again, but he was sluggish and demanded they do the work. Cassandra started this time but after barely half an hour Kodos started shouting, pushing Cassandra off the bed. “You aren’t even trying. Here I am, aware that you were marked for death and I still offer you to feed you even though I should kill you instead and then you won’t even work for it properly? You’ll need to do better than this.” Jamie helped Cassandra to her feet while Lesley hid behind one of the bedposts. “I’m trying; I’ve never done this before.” Cassy whimpered rubbing her shoulder where Kodos had shoved her. “You call that trying? This isn’t up to my standards. Maybe if I show you vermin how serious I am about this you’ll start to take me seriously.” He reached for his jacket that he had hung next to the door. “Please, I take you seriously. I am trying. Please give me another chance.” The oldest girl begged but it was already too late. Kodos pulled out a phaser and without further warning shot her at point-blank range. Lesley screamed and Jamie jumped aside. While Kodos still stared at the body of the unfortunate girl Jamie’s anger bubbled over and she grabbed the knife from under the pillow, where she had hidden it and jumped the monster. He tried to pull the phaser up and defend himself, but Jamie was faster and by now used to fighting larger and stronger man. She rammed the blade into his neck and twisted. A high pitched gurgling scream escaped the monster that had haunted Jim’s dreams for far too long. She pushed the knife deeper into his throat, twisting it and moving it around. Kodos flailed and tried to throw his attacker off, but Jamie wouldn’t yield. After having injured him enough that he would not get up again she pulled out the knife and stabbed him in the chest over and over, finally relieving all her hatred and pain. He was to blame for all those deaths, for the orphaned children, for the parents that would have to bury their children if they could even find their bodies, for the poison in the food, for the innocent children that had to grow up before their time, for the revolting things his guards made the helpless do. He was the monster who had started it and he hadn’t even felt remorse.

Jamie didn’t know how long she stabbed into the now lifeless body, but it couldn’t have been long. Lesley had come over and put a hand on Jim’s arm. “It’s over, Jamie. He’s dead.” The young girl looked at her friend and after a moment’s hesitation moved off the mangled corpse. The small blond girl paused at Cassandra’s body. The dead eyes were still wide open in fright and a scorch mark showed the spot where the phaser had hit. Without saying a word Jamie kneeled down and closed Cassy’s eyes. She put her forehead to that of her deceased friend. Then she straightened up and quickly got their clothes from the other room. “Dress.” She ordered emotionlessly. She made quick work of her clothes and began searching through the cupboards and shelves for food. She even looked into adjacent rooms after making sure that there was no one else inside. She filled anything she could find with ripe fruit, soft bread, crisp vegetables and fragrant herbs. Lesley joined her when she was done dressing. They didn’t speak a word. It took them the better part of the afternoon to finish their work. When they were done Jamie opened a window leading out the back. “Climb down.” She ordered as emotionlessly as before and Lesley did as she was told. When she was on solid ground Jim handed her the bags of food they had filled. After she had handed down the last one, Jamie followed. The younger girl hid the food they couldn’t carry in a nearby house and then they made their way back to the cellar.

 

At first everyone was relieved to see the girls returning, but when they realized what Cassandra’s absence meant they fell silent. Jamie picked a group of several strong boys and led them to the hidden food stash. They brought their haul home and by nightfall all of them had returned, all of them but Cassandra. The children were nervous that evening. Lesley had not spoken yet and Jim hadn’t been available since she was gone recovering the food. After a satisfying but subdued dinner everyone looked to Jamie for an explanation. Sensing the unrest among the children Jamie got up and turned to the expectant crowd.

“Today we lost a good woman, a friend, a loving aunt, a tower of strength, a bastion of calm, one of the wisest people I have ever met and a brave person to boot. I could always rely on her guidance and her support. She died trying to do the right thing, trying to make it easier for each and every one of us. She died at the hand of a monster, a monster that has robbed us of our parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces and friends, a monster that has deprived us of what is rightfully ours. No more!” By then every face was looking at the young girl in silence. “Today I avenged those that are no longer among us; I killed the bastard that labeled us as inferior, as unworthy of living. I ended the life of governor Kodos, or as I have taken to calling him: ‘Kodos the Butcher’. Kodos falls!” She called over the silence and made the gesture that had previously distinguished friend from foe, a left-handed salute followed by the downwards movement of the left hand palm up. “But we will not forget. We will never forget what happened on this planet, we will remember one year from now, ten years from now and if we live that long even a hundred years from now, what our friends and family died for. They died for us, so that we might live. So let us live for those that can no longer do so. Let us live, even if we struggle, even if it seems hard, because someone died so that we might get another chance. Let us live to our fullest now that the monster is gone, but let us never forget the ones that made this possible. Even if we one day can’t remember what their faces looked like or how their voices sounded, we will remember what they have done for us and what we owe them. They will forever be in our hearts. Kodos falls, but we remember.” This time she followed the gesture by putting her right fist on her heart. At first the children looked stunned but when Lesley got up and mirrored Jamie others followed until all of the children stood with their fists on their hearts. Nobody spoke for several minutes until Jim let her arms drop to her side. She turned around and went to Cassandra’s bed. She took the small form of Madeline from the makeshift cradle they had built. She hugged the small child close and whispered in her ear how sorry she was, that her aunt wouldn’t be returning and promising that she would always take care of her. She fed both babies in her care. Rick had already taken care of the boy he had brought along.

Jim sat there cradling Maddy in her arms until Lesley came over.

“So that’s it then.” She said softly looking at her friend. “Kodos is dead. Does it change anything?”

Jim looked at Lesley. “It does. It gives them hope. Kodos was indestructible and now he’s dead. Unfortunately that’s also going to influence the guards. They felt safe with Kodos backing them up. There are going to be riots tomorrow. They’ll be looking for us and the marked ones that hear if this will attack full force. It’s going to be a bloodbath. I’ll tell them to either hide in their own hideouts or come here, but I don’t want any of us on the streets tomorrow, maybe longer.” Jamie said. Lesley eyed her friend worriedly. “How are you dealing with her death?” she asked softly. Jamie’s lips thinned. “She died, so did many others before her.” Lesley’s brow furrowed. “You don’t mean that. You were friends. I don’t believe that you take this lightly.” Jim glared at her remaining friend furiously. “What do you want to hear? That it was once again my fault? Because I already know that. If I had just pulled out that knife earlier, killed him during lunch or even before that. If I had only shoved her aside instead of saving my own sorry ass. I should have protected her; that’s why I accompanied you. I was supposed to make sure we all get back safely and now she’s dead and it’s all my fault.” Jamie broke out in sobs and Lesley wrapped her arms around her. “No, Jamie, don’t do this to yourself. We were aware of what might happen and we were ready to take that risk. What am I supposed to say? I didn’t even try to defend her, at least you got that knife out and killed the man before he could do the same to you or me. I did nothing, I just cowered in the corner. If you need to blame someone blame me.” Lesley was crying to and they hugged each other. “It’s not your fault, Lesley. Don’t think that.” The older girl nodded and took a shaky breath. “I remember a quote from a book I read, I don’t remember the name though. It went like this: “Don’t pity the dead, pity the living.” Cassandra is somewhere where she can’t be hurt anymore. She doesn’t suffer so we shouldn’t beat ourselves up over it.” Jim nodded, but both girls knew that they would not forgive themselves for a very long time.

 

Before she went to bed Jamie told the children about her predictions for the next day. She gave those that would stay in their own hiding places enough food to last at least three more days after calculating that they would last that long without going on raids. She checked Stacey and Lesley and realized with satisfaction that they were a distraction for each other. Neither Stacey nor Lesley would forfeit to depression. Jamie herself distracted herself with the care over Madeline and the Vulcan child that she had yet to name.

 

As predicted that next day passed in chaos. The children were huddled together in the cellar listening to the shouts and gunshots above and more than once they feared that the ceiling might fall on their heads. As ordered nobody left the safety of the hideout.

The second last and the last day of week four passed similarly and Jamie started to worry what they would do about food if the next day was no better. She didn’t want to send anyone out into the fighting. On the evening of the last day of the fourth week the noises outside dwindled and Jim hoped anew. They could do it, they had to.

 

The first day of week five began much like the days before the riots had started. Jamie and a few others sat in the former supply closet planning raids when someone knocked on their door. A gangly boy entered that Jamie had seen often. He was one of the few with enough computer skills to successfully hack into the security systems of the food storages. He looked odd. There was worry in his face but there was something else Jamie hadn’t seen in a long time – excitement.

“I was on my way here when I saw something, Jim. Maybe you should come along. There are people in the city. They are wearing uniforms, but not the ones Kodos’ guards wear. They look like Starfleet, Jim.” Noise broke out at that pronouncement and Jim had to call for order before she could respond to the excited boy. “You didn’t recognize any of their faces, did you?” she asked carefully. It wouldn’t do to run into a trap. When they boy shook his head Jamie made a quick decision. “Okay, all of you come along. We will see if they are really Starfleet and if they are we will finally get out of here. I will talk to them first just in case and if I give you the sign you come out and we discuss what to do next.” Before she left she called Lesley over. “Take care of the babies, will you. Maybe we’ll be out of here by tonight, but I won’t take any chances.”

The children were creeping through the shadows watching several people in Starfleet uniforms. In addition most of them hadn’t yet been outside and weren’t aware of the results of three fays worth of riots. Bodies littered the streets, guards and runaways alike, even unmarked were lying in their own blood, dead eyes staring at nothing. It set the children on edge, but Jamie kept them in line. This was far too important.

When she doubted that they could gain more info from observing, Jim decided to take the chance. The adults seemed like genuine Starfleet officers and she needed to get her people out of here. Food supplies were running low and many were injured or sick and needed treatment. Slowly she moved out of the shadows and onto the street. The officers were always in pairs of twos and Jim had chosen the one that looked the least threatening. If worst came to worst she would maybe even be able to incapacitate one of them and outrun the other. The pair consisted of a slim man and a small woman, both human looking. The woman saw her first and alerted the man to her presence. They approached her rather quickly, but when Jamie took several steps back they slowed down, holding their empty hands out in front of their bodies. “Hello there, we are from Starfleet. I’m Lieutenant Willson and that over there is Ensign Lewis. We are personnel of the USS Eagle. We came because of a distress call. We were informed that the food supplies had fallen victim to an unknown fungus that destroyed wild plants as well as crops and even processed food.” Jim scowled. “So he actually did call for help.” Lieutenant Willson looked quizzically at the small girl in front of her. “Can you prove that you are indeed Starfleet personnel? Anyone could dress in Starfleet uniforms and claim to belong to a starship.” Jim demanded. Ensign Lewis muttered something uncomplimentary but Lieutenant Willson gave him a withering look and slowly pulled out her communicator. “Lieutenant Willson here.” She said keeping eye contact with Jamie. The answer was instantaneous. “USS Eagle Lieutenant Carson here, what is your status?” The woman asked for permission to speak with her eyes and after short hesitation Jim nodded. “We found a child. A very distrustful one might I add.” She winked at Jamie and the girl didn’t mind. Distrust was necessary to survive here. “Understood. Eagle out.” Came the response from the communicator. “So now you know who we are, might I ask who you are?” the Lieutenant asked smiling softly. “My name is Jamie Tiera Kirk; I am the leader of the marked children of Tarsus IV.” She introduced herself. The woman looked taken aback and the man eyed her suspiciously. “Leader, aye? This is no game, missy.” He growled. Jim glared at him. “What do you know about what has been happening here? You don’t know what we have lived through this past month. You see the result but what do you know of the events that took place to lead to this?” Lieutenant Willson hid her grin behind her hand and Ensign Lewis look at the same time affronted and scolded. “Don’t mind Ensign Lewis, he’s a grumpy one. So you are a leader. Where are your followers?” Willson asked. Jim decided that it was safe enough and waved to her hidden comrades. There weren’t many since they were only the leaders of their respective group. With Jamie there were twelve children climbing from behind buildings and bushes into the sunlight. Willson looked surprised, but Jamie wasn’t sure whether she had assumed there were more or less. “Are that all of them?” she asked, counting them. “No, there are more. I only took a few when your appearance was reported to me.” Jim clarified and Lewis looked very astonished. “So you actually are their leader?” he asked and Jamie just glared.

It took them less than an hour to round up all the children and bring them to the meeting point where they were all then beamed up onto the starship. The doctors in the med bay started checking them immediately. Jamie determined the order in which they were to be checked. At first the doctors tried to argue but when Jim explained that she had put the ones with the biggest need first they stopped complaining. Maybe the fact that the children followed Jim’s orders without question played a part too.

The days went by slowly on the USS Eagle. There was nothing new to do, no raids to plan, no guards to look out for. The personnel on board of the starship was surprised at first by the odd behavior of the children. They were broken up into groups with their own leaders and yet everyone seemed to look at Jamie for orders. It took the crew on board some time to get the children to eat. Jamie wouldn’t let anyone touch any food until she knew what they demanded in return. When they finally convinced the young girl that there would be no demands in return for the food the blond girl took a bite from random dishes. At first the crew thought Jamie was a selfish tyrant who would take her share first, but when they found the general antidote pills in her luggage they re-evaluated her behavior.

The first time one of the crew members found weird markings on several doors on the ship they were puzzled. They removed the markings only to find new ones the next day. When the crew continued removing the marks Jim got so annoyed that she went to talk to Lieutenant Willson. She liked the woman best since she had been so kind and obliging. Jim explained in no uncertain terms that the children would not be comfortable to move around the ship the way the psychologist wanted them to, unless the markings stayed on the doors.

As the days went by the children opened up more and more, only few kept their distance, among them Jamie. She avoided questions about her feelings as much as possible. She helped Willson with some of her work though. When Jim found out that the Starfleet officers had a list of people that had been living on Tarsus IV one month ago she went over the list and pointed out all of the people she was certain were dead. She remembered many from the massacre and she could identify the children that had died on her watch and could even tell them how they had died. When some of the crewmembers mentioned that Kodos was still missing Jamie said “Stop looking. He’s dead and he’s not coming back.” It took them several hours to find out how Jamie knew since she wouldn’t say more on the subject. When one of the children finally revealed that Jim had actually killed the man herself no one on board knew how to deal with the girl. She was only 13 and yet she was the one who had murdered the man they labeled ‘Kodos the Executioner’. At first they were worried that they might have a coldblooded murderer on board, but when Lesley heard about it she came out with the entire story. Jamie didn’t say anything about it. She didn’t really care.

The crew of the USS Eagle made a list of all orphaned children still alive and started contacting their closest relatives. Most of the children still had relatives elsewhere and would be dropped off at various planets to live with their new families. When it came to Jamie they of course contacted Winona Kirk, but as usual the woman was on a mission in space. When she heard of her son’s death she buried herself in work and told them to place Jamie wherever they thought would be best for her since she wouldn’t be able to return for some time yet. The response left the personnel of the USS Eagle rather puzzled and they left Jamie’s living arrangements for later. As it turned out it wasn’t so hard to decide on her placement after all since little Madeline had no relatives left either and the yet unnamed Vulcan baby had only a great grand aunt currently living on Vulcan. Jamie would not let either girl leave her sight and after some to and fro the great grand aunt on Vulcan agreed to take all three of them for the time being. Winona Kirk agreed to the arrangements when she was informed of them and that was that.

After a month in hell on Tarsus IV and another month spent in utter boredom on board of the USS Eagle Jamie finally left for her new home, Vulcan.

**Author's Note:**

> A huge thank you to Daleklover10 for letting me borrow his/her idea of Jim rescuing two children from Tarsus IV and taking them in. I played around with it a bit, changed genders an stuff, but the idea came from Daleklove10 and I really like it. Thank you so much!
> 
> I chose to go with a female James for various reasons, but mainly because I myself am female and tend to have trouble writing male characters, they tend to come out rather girlish ;) Please don't kill me for the name either, I wanted the initials to stay and I wanted a name that could be shortened to Jim. So there we are, Jamie Tiera Kirk :P I actually like the sound of it.
> 
> There will be a continuation of this story that shows the events of the movies, but I haven't written it yet, so you'll have to wait a bit.
> 
> Comments are always appreciated, I'd like to know where I can still improve and what you thought was already quite good. Thanks!


End file.
